The Demise of the Two Party Political System in Antebellum Florida, 1851-1856

The Demise of the Two Party Political System in Antebellum Florida, 1851-1856

Seth A. Weitz

Florida State University

Noted Civil War diarist and South Carolina “fire-eater” or avid secessionist Mary Boykin Chesnut proclaimed on a visit to Florida late in 1860 that “no-one could live in this state unless he were a fire-eater”.[1] This was not far from reality. Ten years earlier, the state was not ready to follow South Carolina into the abyss of secession even though the stout confidence Floridians held in the conservative Whig Party was shaken in the aftermath of the “Crisis of 1850.” In 1850 Florida’s statehood was only five years old but the economic and social makeup of the state was already deeply rooted and centered around the institution of slavery. The entire decade of the 1850’s further entrenched these values, solidifying the landscape that helped dictate the events of 1860-61. The plantation system dominated Florida, thus the course the state would follow in the future was firmly tied to the security felt by the planter aristocracy. As the decade of the 1850’s progressed, the formerly ultra-conservative planter class lost confidence in the Whigs as the party who could best safeguard their interests, clearing the path for radical Democratic domination of Florida after 1854 and secession at the beginning of the next decade.

The first scholar to analyze the two-party political system in antebellum Florida was Herbert J. Doherty. His 1959 work The Whigs of Florida, 1845-1854, while exploring the rise and fall of the Whig Party also dealt with the Democratic Party, and touched on the planter aristocracy.[2] However, it did not delve deeply into the way the political transformations in Florida cleared the path for the rise of extremism which, in turn, allowed the fire eaters to guide the state towards secession in January, 1861. Doherty claimed that the demise of the Whig Party in Florida was largely due to inept leadership. While this fact, coupled with shrewd propaganda created by the Democratic press helped push the issue, it was ultimately the defection of the elite planters of Middle Florida which sealed the Whigs’ fate. Dorothy Dodd was another twentieth-century historian who dealt with early Florida politics and who contributed numerous articles to the field as well as serving as the first state archivist.[3] Dodd was openly sympathetic to the South and her numerous articles, therefore, present us with a partisan biased understanding of the time period.

As 1851 began, the Whigs urgently needed to counter the growing radical elements within society. Whigs were vexed at the prospect of being labeled the enemy of the South which was exactly the goal of the extremists as well as the Democratic Party after the “Crisis of 1850.” In 1850 South Carolina had flirted with secession after Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas pushed a bill through Congress that became known as the Compromise of 1850 and was later labeled the “Crisis of 1850” since, in spite of the fact that the legislation contained concessions to both the North and the South, the majority of Southerners viewed the bill as a setback for Southern rights. The Democrats, then, wasted no time in playing up the fact that the Whigs, as a party, supported Henry Clay’s bill. Thus, the diminished power Whigs held in 1850 as compared to 1848 was also an indication of the growing lack of confidence the voting public had in the party’s ability and, more importantly, desire to defend slavery and Southern rights at all costs. This trepidation mobilized the conservatives to create Constitutional Union Clubs within Florida as well as throughout the rest of the South.

The movement originated in Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama before making its way further south. It drew the attention of many prominent Southern statesmen who were not eager to break the bonds of Union. In Florida, former governor and devout conservative Richard Keith Call took keen interest in this faction since he always had been and always would be a unionist. Call was interested in attracting as many disillusioned Democrats as possible to the unionist banner. Consequently, the union camp was composed of both Whigs and Democrats in Florida. These unionists shared anxieties over greater visibility of radical factions in both the North and South. Call urged all Southerners to join the Union Party, forecasting that this organization would pave the way for a serene decade ahead.[4]

Call campaigned vigorously in support of the Union Party, making speeches and striving to persuade his peers to enlist in his crusade against radicalism. He asserted that “the man who loves party more than he loves his country, who contracts his patriotism…is unworthy of the name of American Citizen”.[5] This plea was an effort to lure Democrats away from the rigid lines of partisan politics. To Call, unionism was the central objective which he desired the nation to achieve and maintain. Public pro-Union meetings were created to rival the radical Southern Rights Associations which sprung up following the Compromise of 1850. Tallahassee’s Florida Sentinel endorsed this party and encouraged Florida to follow the lead of Georgia by declaring “whenever a Union Party shall be organized on broad, generous, liberal, constitutional ground, we propose to be with it”.[6]

Call was not isolated in his labors as he was joined by fellow Whig Edward Carrington Cabell. Cabell represented Florida in Congress and was fearful of the impending disintegration of the national party in an election year. Like Call, he saw a Union Party as the best possible alternative to a splintered Whig Party. In a speech before Congress in Washington, he distanced himself from the national party by throwing all his weight behind the Constitutional Unionists within the Whig Party who supported Millard Fillmore as the Whig presidential candidate because they believed his nomination would be the only hope of the party in the South. Despite the efforts of Call and Cabell, the Union Party never achieved the same status it had attained in Georgia or Alabama. Deep-rooted political animosity and profoundly entrenched party lines were stronger in Florida than in its sister states, save for possibly South Carolina.[7]

The failure of the Whigs to consolidate power and generate a productive opposition to the growth of fanaticism in Florida was never more evident than in the gubernatorial election of 1852. The campaign and election of 1852 saw the birth of a new radical group known as the “South Carolina School” of Florida politics. This group, which would be responsible for pushing the state towards secession in 1860, consisted of disunionists and radicals alike whose supreme aim was to protect Southern Rights and the institution of slavery.

The Democrats were better equipped to handle the turmoil of sectional conflict in 1851-52 than the Whigs. They knew they needed to distance themselves from the fiery image born out of the crisis of 1850. They toned down their disunionist stance and desperately struggled to present a more peaceful demeanor. When the Democrats gathered in April to hammer out their platform for the upcoming state elections, they met amidst an atmosphere of moderation, adopting a platform that was perceived as inoffensive and temperate in character. The Democrats fashioned themselves as the party of the South and thus retreated from the vindictive overtly confrontational course which their previous campaigns had pursued.

The Whigs, however, did not believe that their rivals had truly transformed themselves. They saw these actions for what they were, a ploy to obtain votes and guarantee the election of a Democrat to the governorship to replace the moderate Thomas Brown. The Florida Sentinel, Tallahassee’s leading Whig paper asked “do they imagine that they can cause the people to forget their course but a short time ago, when some of them declared that the compromise ‘tore the Constitution to tatters’, and they would rather see the Union dissolved”.[8] They urged Floridians to look to the past to see the true nature of the Democrats and called on them not to be duped by loquacious prose which they claimed was orchestrated in such a manner as to sway the voting populace into their camp.[9]

Ironically, the Democrats, who now claimed to be a more moderate entity, chose fire-eating James Broome to headline their ticket. Broome, who was the leader of the “South Carolina School” had migrated to Leon County from South Carolina in 1837 and was labeled a “Secessionist in the abstract and the concrete, of the strictest sect of the South Carolina seperationists”.[10] This selection appeased the radicals in the party who had quietly opposed any softening of the party’s image. The nomination also demonstrated that the Democrats were confident enough in the validity and righteousness of their principles to take this risk. The Democrats were convinced that the Whigs were too badly divided as a direct result of the growth of the Constitutional Party to pose a legitimate threat.

The Whig Party platform also foreshadowed the emergence of the Nativists and Know-Nothing Party which would follow the Whigs in the middle part of the decade. The Whigs resolved that the Compromise of 1850 must be the final settlement on the sectional issues that had almost engulfed the nation in civil war. They naively rallied behind the bill as the ultimate savior of the Union. Out of these meetings emerged a demand for a statewide convention which was held on July 14 in Tallahassee. In addition to displaying unwavering allegiance to Clay’s compromise, the Whigs endorsed Millard Fillmore’s Presidential candidacy as well as selecting George Ward as their candidate for Governor along with supporting Cabell’s reelection bid.[11]

At the national convention in Baltimore, the Whigs’ nomination of Winfield Scott drew scorn from the majority of Southerners. The derision was more evident in Florida where the public held an old grudge against the general. This disdain found its roots in Scott’s unappealing assessment of Floridians made in 1836 during the Second Seminole War. He had ridiculed and lambasted the citizens when he issued Order #48, accusing what he deemed cowardly actions in the face of relentless Indian attacks. He questioned their patriotism and belittled them for the panic which they displayed. The “Hero of Churubusco” said he had “the misfortune to command a handful of brave troops in the midst of such a population”.[12] Florida’s Whig newspapers hesitantly supported Scott since he was their nominee but they accepted the reality that the best they could hope for was a strict adherence to the principles of the Compromise.[13] The Democrats added fuel to the anti-Scott fire by condemning the General since his candidacy had recently been endorsed by known Pennsylvania abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.[14]

The Democratic national convention provided a shocking compromise candidate in New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce. Pierce’s nomination was celebrated as a victory for Southern rights. Pierce was a “doughface,” a Northerner who was overtly sympathetic to the South and was perceived highly malleable, someone the powerful Southern wing of the party could control. The selection was met with praise and adulation from Florida’s moderate democrats such as Augustus Maxwell. Ironically when James Broome followed a moderate speech by Maxwell with a scathing speech of his own which denounced the Compromise, he was rewarded with a larger and more genuine ovation from those present.[15]

Radicalism was not dead by a long shot in Florida as the upcoming election was to prove. Though the Democrats had downplayed the extremism in their message, Broome’s nomination for Governor and the immense support he received frightened moderates and unionists alike. Broome, considered by many the leader of the “South Carolina School” of politics in Florida desired to replicate the South Carolina in Florida and had fervently encouraged migration south in the previous decades. It was his hope to surround himself with as many followers and allies as possible who all held the same radical vision for the state and the South. Broome was a wily politician who realized that in order to achieve his lofty ambitions, he would have to make sacrifices and compromises along his rise to power.[16] However, Broome seemed to change his attitude in a speech delivered in Tallahassee where he shocked many attendees by vowing to support the Compromise of 1850. While this sudden about face stunned the audience, Broome reassured his supporters that the nation would not be held hostage by Clay’s bill.[17] Broome was aided by the fact that between 1850 and 1860 the number of immigrants to Florida from South Carolina and Georgia doubled. By 1860 Georgians constituted the largest group of non-native Floridians and were closely followed by former residents of South Carolina.

When the Whigs met in Tallahassee for their state convention they selected Richard Keith Call to lead the caucus. George Ward, the gubernatorial candidate, pledged to abide by the Baltimore Convention. Initially Cabell carried his hostility towards Scott back to Tallahassee with him claiming Scott “would not carry a single state or poll as many as 50 votes in Florida”.[18] Cabell further urged the state convention to deal solely with the gubernatorial and congressional elections while ignoring the national election. When Ward heard of these comments, he vowed not to run on the same ticket with Cabell. Once again, the Whigs were plunged into a chaotic state of panic as Ward called a secret session to eliminate Cabell from the party’s label.[19]

The Democrats jumped at another opportunity to further soil the name of the Whigs when, regarding the absurdity of running Cabell on the same ticket with a pro-Scott man, the Floridian proclaimed, “surely such a farce was never before played off on an enlightened community”.[20] Cabell’s rise to prominence was astounding and unheard of in the annals of Florida’s history but his continued association with the sickly Whig Party was slowly destroying his political career. The Democrats pounced on this opportunity and their press reported the death of the Whigs in Florida. The Jacksonville News relished the prospect of informing the state about the shortcomings of their arch-rivals. They boldly stated “the body will be embalmed and kept over ground till November, when it will be laid in a grave”.[21]

In the weeks leading up to the election incumbent Governor Thomas Brown fought vigorously against Broome, in many instances giving more impassioned speeches than the Whig candidate himself. The grim reality the Whigs faced was that most of their traditional support from the black belt of Middle Florida where the majority of Florida’s slaves lived was waning. Since territorial days, with the exception of Jefferson County, this region had been a strong bastion of Whiggery. The planter aristocracy was quickly realizing that the Democrats and not the Whigs were the only party strong enough to protect their peculiar institution.

When the dust cleared and the votes of the statewide election of 1852 were tallied South Carolina ruled Florida. James E. Broome defeated Ward 4,628-4,336.[22] While the margin of victory was not overwhelming at fifty one to forty-eight percent, the writing was clearly on the wall as Cabell was not returned to Congress. The shifting of support in Middle Florida was made apparent when it was revealed that both Cabell and Ward had lost Leon and Gadsden Counties. These counties, along with Jefferson, were home to the highest numbers of slaves, bales of cotton produced and cash value of farms in the state and, as previously mentioned, the planters no longer felt their assets were safe in the Whig party. In all Cabell lost three counties in East Florida which had helped to send him to Washington in 1850. These counties of Marion, Alachua, and St. Johns were all important economically as the former two were driven by a plantation economy similar to the black belt.[23]

The embarrassing thrashing at the polls left a permanent scar on Cabell’s once bold psyche. The promising energetic unionist stalwart was left distraught and disillusioned. He abandoned politics shortly after the election to assume the presidency of the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, a title he held until he moved away from Florida immediately before the Civil War never to return. Cabell spent the remainder of his days quietly in Missouri until his death in 1896 at the age of 80.[24]

Although the Whigs would meekly muster candidates for the 1854 midterm elections, 1852 is often cited as the true end of the party’s run in Florida as well as on the national level. National leaders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster died in 1852, more than offsetting fiery Democrat John C. Calhoun’s death two years earlier. This left the national party in the hands of New York’s William H. Seward which all but sealed its fate in the South. A further blow to the Whigs in Florida was the demise of their once influential newspaper ring which after 1853 consisted only of Tallahassee’s Florida Sentinel, Pensacola’s Gazette, and Jacksonville’s Florida Republican.[25]

The Whigs had one last gasp of breath left in them which they directed in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The bill was originally introduced in December of 1853 by Iowa Senator A.C. Dodge, and was championed by Stephen A. Douglas. It negated the premises of the Missouri Compromise which had outlawed slavery north of the 36-30 line. “Popular Sovereignty” was the new term that rose from the proposed bill. Douglas would embrace this phrase making it the centerpiece of the platform upon which he would ultimately rest his political fate. The South was initially opposed to the bill since Northerners were known to be more mobile, especially in migration to the western territories which the bill concerned. Ultimately, the Democrats viewed the bill as a possible victory for their cause, since it opened up territories north of the Missouri Compromise line to the possibility of being saddled with chattel slavery. Whigs, on the other hand, were highly critical of the law which they felt would reopen freshly healed wounds concerning the sectional and slavery debates that had recently thrust the nation to the brink of civil war. The Whigs in Florida quickly realized they were in the minority in opposing the bill. They held firm and this stance constituted the last failed effort to halt the growth of radicalism in Florida. In May 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the bill making it the law of the land.

The majority of ordinary Floridians viewed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a minor Southern victory in stark contrast to the way they had perceived the Compromise of 1850. However, support for Douglas’ new bill in Florida was exaggerated by the Democrats in the state and it was evident that the Whig party would not be able to mount serious opposition to the Democrats in the midterm elections set to take place later in the same year. By 1854 the party did not have coherent leadership or a recognized platform on which their once powerful press could advertise. In hindsight, it is ironic to note that while the Democrats celebrated this Southern victory which furthered the demise of the Whigs, this bill and Stephen Douglas’ undying support of Popular or Squatter Sovereignty would in due time spell doom for the Democratic Party and lead to civil war first in Kansas and later throughout the nation.

In 1854 the Democrats were eager to form a platform which would highlight the principles that the party extolled and on which their candidates would campaign in the coming months. The convention was scheduled to take place in July in Madison, the site of John McGehee’s fiery secessionist speech three years earlier.[26] As expected, the Democrats approved the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was seen as a “measure in a spirit of justice to all the States” giving them new hope that they could finally put the disaster of Henry Clay’s bill behind them. They once again nominated the moderate Augustus Maxwell for Congress knowing full well that they were likely to secure a majority in the General Assembly for two more years, thus enabling them to return the fire eating David Levy Yulee to Washington to look after the party and state’s most important interests.[27]

Various Whigs favored a meeting in Alligator, present-day site of Lake City, in order to endorse their candidates as well as to oppose the growth of radicalism that the Democrats represented. Not all Whigs supported the idea of a convention because the party had never relied on such measures in the past even though the Republican saw the need for a statewide meeting to unite the party in resistance to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.[28] The party selected Thomas Brown to oppose Maxwell and he began his campaign by accusing the Democrats of reopening the slavery issue by their unwavering allegiance to the bill. However, Brown vacillated on his views and seemingly contradicted himself by claiming that, had he been in Congress, he would have supported the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in the end because it truly was a victory for the South. Yet, Brown and the Whigs also realized that many Floridians were disenchanted with the former Governor since he was remembered for failing to fully embracing Southern Rights during his four year term that ended in 1852.

The Democrats observed the rupture in the Whig party regarding Douglas’ Act and made overtures to the segment of the party which had favored endorsement of the measure. They ultimately invited them to join in an alliance with the Democrats to create a unified Floridian Party which would stand for the rights of the South. Brown opposed a coalition with his rivals because he did not want to abandon the Northern Whigs, even though they were now seen in the South as the abolitionist wing of the party. The Democrats responded by trying to play on Southern patriotism and sentiment by exclaiming that unless a bond was established “they (Whigs) can do the South no good”.[29]

The results of the 1854 midterm election illuminated the gravest fear of conservatives and unionists alike. The avenue towards radicalism and ultimately secession was cleared by virtual abolition of the two party system in Florida. Augustus Maxwell was returned to Congress in a landslide which saw him garner fifty-six percent of the votes to Brown’s forty-four percent. In 1852 Maxwell had defeated Cabell by a mere 22 votes, but two years later the margin was 1,074.[30] Gadsden County was the only county in Florida’s black belt which reaffirmed its allegiance to the Whigs. The majority of planters again did not feel comfortable placing their fate in the hands of a party they felt could not protect their interests.

Democratic dominance in Florida was even more apparent after the election and so was the state’s penchant for radicalism. The leadership in the Democratic Party had shifted from the more moderate element of the party, largely William Dunn Moseley and James Westcott, and was now firmly entrenched in the hands of the “South Carolina School”, consisting largely of Governor Broome, John McGehee and future fire-eating Governor Madison Starke Perry who would lead Florida towards secession in 1860-1861. Gone was the romanticism which Call and numerous Whigs had implored to defend their actions and policies. The 1850’s were a decade Call and the Whigs wished to forget as it had become engulfed by damaging emotionalism.

James Broome’s address opening the seventh session of Florida’s General Assembly focused almost entirely on Southern rights ignoring many internal issues which the holdovers from the Whig Party preferred to focus on. It was evident from this speech that the state was firmly in the hands of radicals whose sole goal was to protect slavery at all costs and who were not afraid to remove the state from the Union in order to accomplish that end. Following in South Carolina’s wake, Florida seemed resigned to being driven purely by emotional rather than rational thought.[31]

Newspapers had played an integral role in shaping Florida’s history. In the antebellum period, newspapers throughout the nation served as political propaganda machines. Often these organs were the only means in which the literate populace learned about current events in the nation and the state, albeit in a slanted biased manner. In many instances, a larger city such as Jacksonville or Tallahassee would have multiple papers, with one serving the Democrats and the other the Whigs. Often it was easy to discern which party a paper supported by looking at the name as was the case of the Marianna Whig. Newspapers clearly fueled the sweeping tide of emotionalism that was spreading across Florida and the South in the 1850’s and they would play an even larger role after John Brown’s Raid in 1859. The papers were the voice of the extremists in the 1850’s and they were used by their editors who were commonly involved in the affairs of the state as a means of further politicking to spread their gospel.

The 1856 election was the last race of the antebellum period in Florida that saw the Democrats run opposed. Perry easily won the Governor’s mansion, and the party maintained and even increased their stranglehold over the state legislature. When the dust had cleared the Democrats had won 42 of Florida’s 65 seats or roughly Sixty-Five percent.[32] The rise of the Republican Party in 1856 which coincided with the split of the American Party was the death blow for the old conservative camp in Florida as well as in the Deep South as a whole. The Republican Party would not even gain recognition in radicalized Florida and was absent from the ballots in 1856, 1858 and 1860. Call continued his fruitless efforts to keep Florida within the Union, but without a viable party to back him and more importantly without much support from the planter aristocracy, his crusade was hopeless. Upon hearing that Florida had voted 62-7 in favor of secession on January 10, 1861, Call was a broken man. When approached on the steps of the capital in Tallahassee and asked his reaction to the vote he stated “Yes, you have opened the gates of Hell, from which shall flow the water of the dammed to sink you into perdition”.[33]

The great metamorphosis in Florida’s political culture from 1851-1856 was the key factor in the state’s fervor to join South Carolina and Mississippi in becoming the third state to secede from the Union on January 10, 1861. The planter class, which controlled the black belt of Middle Florida, and in turn dominated the state’s political structure, abandoned the conservatives in favor of the radical fire-eating Democrats. It was only under Democratic leadership that they felt assured that the peculiar institution of slavery and the Southern way of life to which they had grown accustomed to was safe and could survive and prosper.